Witness: Pacheco's mom told him to 'keep quiet'

Michael Davidson

Posted:
05/26/2009 07:14:00 AM MDT

Click photo to enlarge

Kelsey Shannon's sister, Angela Horne, center, walks with her husband Tim Horne, left, accompanied by a victim's advocate as they leave the courtroom during a break in the preliminary hearing of Alex Pacheco at the Broomfield Combined Courts on Tuesday.

After learning that her son had killed 13-year-old Broomfield girl Kelsey Shannon last year, Alex Pacheco's mother advised him not to tell others, according to an arrest warrant unsealed Tuesday.

In the warrant, a witness claimed Pacheco told his mother, Michelle Pacheco, about the killing. She allegedly advised him "to keep quiet and stay under the radar," the witness said.

The warrant was made public after a judge ruled Tuesday that Pacheco, 18, will face trial for allegedly killing Kelsey, who was his girlfriend and attended Westlake Middle School.

Pacheco was denied bond and will be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. June 24.

Pacheco is charged with first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse and child abuse resulting in death. He was in court Tuesday to conclude a May 13 preliminary hearing, where detectives said Pacheco's friends told them the defendant bragged about strangling Kelsey and stabbing her throat before having sex with her dead body.

District Court Judge John Popovich on Tuesday sided with prosecutors, who said they had evidence that Pacheco bragged to friends about killing Kelsey soon after she disappeared Oct. 14.

Her body was found Jan. 21 in a ditch near the intersection of Lowell Boulevard and West 136th Ave. in Broomfield.

During Tuesday's hearing, a Broomfield police detective testified that Skytyler Chavez, a student at Front Range Academy, met Kelsey over MySpace last year.

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Chavez said that Kelsey sent three pictures -- including two photos of her breasts -- to his cell phone, according to detective Derek Mayer. Soon after receiving the pictures, Chavez told police that Pacheco and an unknown teenager "jumped him" after school. Chavez said the confrontation was a result of the pictures, Mayer testified.

At the end of the hearing, public defender Megan Ring challenged the strength of the prosecution's evidence.

"We're talking about a bunch of teenagers who may or may not have lied about what Alex said," Ring said.

"Every witness heard something somewhat different," Ring said. "We have several different teenagers who may or may not be using drugs, none of whom went to the police."

"They had just met him in October, the same month he's telling him these things. They didn't have any motive to get him into trouble, they didn't have any motive to lie," she said.

The prosecution's case relies heavily on the testimony of acquaintances of Pacheco, who allegedly spent time drinking, smoking marijuana and dropping acid with him.

Prosecution witnesses who testified earlier in the month were called to the stand by Pacheco's attorneys Tuesday.

Popovich decided to let Ring question the witnesses after a protracted debate between the lawyers, but she was limited to two questions -- Did Pacheco tell the witness he killed Kelsey and when did the conversation happen?

Each witness answered yes to the first question, but none could nail down a date.

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He and his mom should both be thrown in jail for this horrible crime. I understand a mom trying to protect her child but this boy is a devil's son. What about the girl's family, how are they suppose to deal with all this without their daughter. I understand this girl may have been a bit on the wild side and did a few things that if she had lived would later regret in her later life but she did not do anything to deserve to be killed here.

coolpooh

5/26/2009 7:48:57 PM

now listen son, she was only some white teenage girl... don't say anything about killing her and you can get away with murder.... YEAH! that's another great example of how 'getting away with it' is more important than taking responsibility for your actions in this country!!!

Strt56

5/26/2009 8:08:30 PM

So is the piece of trash mother being charged with anything?What a waste of skin - both of them.

HowYouLikeMeNow

5/26/2009 8:35:27 PM

Now see earlier today I was going to post a comment about how everyone seems to question Kelsy's parents for letting her see this guy and I was wondering just where his mother/father was for all of this... now I know... aiding and abetting.

Roloc

5/26/2009 8:41:23 PM

Mom, you are a disgusting excuse for a human being.No wonder your son ended up to be a murderer!

Puck

5/26/2009 8:46:53 PM

The mom should be arrested and charged with conspiracy and complicity after the fact.

boulder_native

5/26/2009 9:04:22 PM

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

ExCo

5/26/2009 9:28:32 PM

Rotten apple from a diseased tree!

geneloehrlein

5/26/2009 11:05:48 PM

We still have the death penalty here, right? Cook 'em, but do it slowly!

Colorado_Rocks

5/26/2009 11:19:28 PM

Yeah and why does he get charged with "abuse of a corpse" when the boys who played "hide the body" with Linda Damm didn't?That's not reasonable.

Women......don't have children unless you can provide and teach them.....you teach your children well and they will make you proud.You neglect them and teach them NOTHING except how to skirt the law and you get this kid and now Mommy's is in deep water up to her eyeballs.

Ya have to have a license to do almost anything but any idiot can procreate.

Poor little girl,thought she knew what she was doing.They are CHILDREN, so for the most part the parents are to blame.

Moosi

5/27/2009 12:33:27 AM

Strt56, something tells me that this fine young man, who would kill his girlfriend and then have sex with her body, is not remotely concerned with taking responsibility or representing his country. That form of logic only works on good people, not psycho killer trash.

monkeys

5/27/2009 6:50:47 AM

We'll see how tough this punk is when his rump is being bartered for a pack of smokes and some soups from the canteen.

There are some mean,nasty hombres that are just drooling over his mug shot.

Now that, would be justice!

Viper1963

5/27/2009 7:49:51 AM

Mr. Pacheco obviously needs to apologize and show genuine contrition, lest he not be forgiven by the Boulder community.

driveby_poster

5/27/2009 8:59:16 AM

Obviously this guy is a deadbeat and so is his mother. They deserve what's coming to them.

However, just for the sake of discussion- If your son told you he had killed someone, would you turn him in?

I don't have kids, but I have a feeling I would not.

Buff_bronc_fan

5/27/2009 9:13:19 AM

OMG watch this guy get off now.

He and his mom should both be thrown in jail for this horrible crime. I understand a mom trying to protect her child but this boy is a devil's son. What about the girl's family, how are they suppose to deal with all this without their daughter. I understand this girl may have been a bit on the wild side and did a few things that if she had lived would later regret in her later life but she did not do anything to deserve to be killed here.

coolpooh

5/27/2009 9:41:17 AM

Uh, can someone shed some light on why the mom not being charged w/conspiracy or obstruction?

yev

5/27/2009 10:10:19 AM

"Uh, can someone shed some light on why the mom not being charged w/conspiracy or obstruction?"Do parents have to testify against their spawn?(serious question: remember husbands and wives can not be forced to testify against each other in court).

Anyway, murdering, corpse abusing scumbag or not, the advice sounds like what any lawyer would tell a client - shut up!

JustSayin

5/27/2009 11:46:06 AM

@JustSayin: In a trial, parents can generally be compelled to testify against their children and vice versa. Whether or not a prosecutor chooses to go that route is another story. Not a big hit w/juries from what I understand. This may vary by state though.

Don't know the specific lingo, but I'm pretty sure regardless of parent/spouse status, to know of a murder and not report it makes one an accessory to it. Or at the very least, guilty of aiding and abetting the murderer.

yev

5/27/2009 12:21:50 PM

Buff_fan - Really?What if you found out your son raped the corpse of the girl he just murdered?You'd be cool with him just hanging out at home, watching t.v., eating Cheetos, while you kept his secret?Seriously?Wouldn't you worry that he was a threat to the next girl he found on MySpace?Or would you just deal with each rape/murder as they happen?How many murders/rapes of corpses would you keep secret for your kid before you decided maybe something was wrong?

HowYouLikeMeNow

5/27/2009 12:23:53 PM

@ Moosi:

He is charged with abuse of a corpse bc he "raped" her dead body.I don't believe it's surprising that such a morbidly disgusting act like that would carry a harsher charge.Tho I agree with you in saying that those "Damm" kids should be charged similarly.

Also, you were speaking to all the "women" out there asking them to reach an age of responsibility before having children so they can teach and provide for them...have you forgotten the absent fathers?I do believe it takes two to get a woman pregnant these days..."Men" should not be excluded from the censorship and blame either and your perhaps unintentional exclusion of these "fathers" speaks even greater volumes about our poor societal norms. Wake up, men- being absent does NOT vindicate yourselves and only serves to enhance the greater bad.

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